The IP camera market has hit its tipping point in Europe, accounting for around half of all revenue from surveillance and security camera sales - while UK sales have risen.

The UK market grew by 42 per cent in terms of revenues in 2013/2014, and by 57 per cent in terms of units.

France was the largest market in Europe, accounting for an 18 per cent share. Italy (14 per cent), Russia and the UK (12 per cent) were second and joint third respectively.

"Demand for IP cameras in the UK could be on the rise again after huge legacy investments there in CCTV in the 80s and 90s," said analyst Context in a statement.

Overall, the IP camera market saw revenue growth of 26 per cent between 2012 and 2013, hitting €56 million, and after a three per cent drop in value in 2014 (caused by a dip in prices as unit sales rose).

Across Europe unit sales grew 34 per cent in 2013 and six per cent in 2014.

D-Link is the largest vendor of IP cameras in Europe, having steadily grown its market share from 2012 (58 per cent), to 2013 (66 per cent) and 2014 (68 per cent).

Axis is second with a market share in 2014 of around 12 per cent and Trendnet makes up the top three with a share of around five per cent.

Gurvan Meyer, analyst at Context, said: "IP cameras and connected home markets have seen some key business developments last year such as the buy of DropCam by Nest (Google) for $555 million.

“The late 2015 plan from Canon to buy Axis for $2.8 billion is one more move into pulling IP cameras out of the hand of the security market only.

“For 2015, we anticipate more mergers in the IP camera market where smaller specialist players are snapped up by larger IT and electronic giants moving into this space.”